September 5, 2016

Dark Depths: Shadow Woods Saturday Preview

Kaptain Carbon continues his unsolicited preview of Shadow Woods by listening to every band on each day and writing about it with increasing weirdness. A Sound of Thunder has been a staple around the DC heavy metal scene if you have ever been interested in the sound of power or progressive at a local level.

Another Grimoire Records band and of course another showcase of weirdo genres that flicker in recording. Corpse Light is more doom in their constitution but that does not stop them from flirting with other genres which eventually corrupt their moral compass. Without Form was released last year and even though i missed it on the end of the year lists, it has slowly become on of my recent favorite EPs.

Oh fuck yeah. Ripping thrash / death from Richmond. Holy shit, I do not think I can takes this on Saturday. My head is going to explode at this hour. This band is still unsigned and they seem to give zero fucks about stepping on your toes in their sound and maybe performances. I am 85% sure these are nice people and will not punch you in the throat.

Black folk metal in the tradition of some of the more woodsy acts which have come out in the recent decades. Similar to bands like Agalloch and Ifing, Windfaerer is concerned with a much more transcendental sound which soars overtop of mountaintops and twilight. While this all sounds calm and realizing, the ferocity of Windfaerer can not be underestimated otherwise one is going to be bleeding in the woods.

This is one of the last Grimoire Records band and it is one of my favorites. First encountered on the fantastic split with Myopic, West Virginia’s Torrid Husk makes black metal both engaging and personal with their own sound of emotional devastation. Similar to most of the Grimoire roster, the sound of Torrid Husk starts in something like black metal but eventually wanders out into the woods and does weird things. If I were to imagine what most of these bands look like, it would be a witching ward posted on some grim looking tree that scares the shit out of you and your friends.

Baltimore based black metal which still has the scraps and bruises of the city which it wears proudly on its jacket. Uncultured, dirty, and perhaps made of criminals, this is the sound of old school black metal which does not give a shit about your feelings. Recently featured on Noisey, this band urged you to feel bad about what you have done in life. There is a pride in awfulness that one feels with this type of music. Total devastation by way of anarchy.

Calling all fans of OSDM, I am going to try to run an old school dungeons and dragons adventure sometime before this show and afterwards we are going to go listen to Cemetery Filth because that is what we do. Cemetery Filth appeared on a four way split with Ectovoid, Trench Rot, and Sabbatory from Unspeakable Axe. That sentence alone should be enough to get you to the show and throw yourself around. Yeah I know there is lots of black metal but the guys at the death metal camp have better beer and water balloons.

Coming all the way from Florida is Grave Gnosis -- an atmospheric black metal band which seems super concerned with esoteric philosophy which is arranged in their music like a summoning circle. With enough droning atmosphere and occultic decorations, this will feel right at home nestled in a small little woodland perhaps accompanied by burning sage. I have already made so many jokes about conjuring spirits so by this point in the festival, they are all just going to fight with each other.

Shitkicking southern sludge which will smell like boot leather and perhaps an aroma of weed and whiskey that forms a heavy vapor in the air. This is Horseskull and it will feel like a splitting headache when the sun crests the dawn. You are not worried about that now, you are here to wrestle the desert demons which dance on the horizon.

To be honest, this was the band I was most looking forward to when the lineup was announced. I saw Coffin Dust at last year’s Blood of the Wolf fest and they were easily one of the best shows of the whole weekend. Wall to wall death metal which digs up old skeletons and throws them on its listener.

So this is something about which I am more confused and possibly intrigued than I am knowledgeable. From what I can gather, Faith in Jane is a Maryland based stoner doom / rock outfit who have had a past connection with Saint Vitus/ The Obsessed frontman Scott Wino. At this year’s Shadow Woods, Wino will be playing or jamming or blessing Faith in Jane's’ set with whatever mystical energy guided those haze filled records.

I am not knowledgeable of Boston or many New England bands besides being up north of where I see many of my shows. What I do know about Lord Almighty is they ride the progressive black metal tag without allowing their songs to succumb to gargantuan lengths. 2-4 minutes is often enough for this band to swoop down and perch on the shoulders of listeners. It is clear and crisp and smells like dying.

This is going to be more of a study than it is a show. Teloch Vovin is a theistic black metal band who seems to be following in the angular and heady tradition of other orthodox black metal bands. Further Down the Tunnel was released last year but the band’s catalog is filled with rehearsals, live albums and EPs filled with bizarre song titles. You can consider me interested and slightly terrified.

Holy shit. This band rules and their promo photography is so utterly ridiculous, I feel it adds to the charm. Taught in the ancient ways of black/thrash similar to Absu, Aura Noir, and Nifelheim, this band is thousands of furious devil's riding winged horse across the horizon bringing the end times in its wake. It is either that or the sound of fists reaching towards the sky.

Of course we end with outcast black metal with a ferocious spirit which can break tree trunks. Somewhere in Portland Maine lives Zud which is more like the hermit of black metal who comes out from time to time and hurls weird fungus at trespassers in its woods.

Kaptain Carbon moderates Reddit's r/metal as well as writes reviews for lesser known black, death, and doom metal for Tape Wyrm as well as Dungeon Synth, Tabletop, and Movie Reviews for Hollywood Metal.